Unity Mode - Taskbar icons on host do not work as expected for certain applications

[timbyng]

When in unity mode, the taskbar icons on the host do not work as expected for certain applications. The following issues can occur:

1. Multiple icons for a single application.

2. Aero Peek does not work if the application is minimized.

3. Icon moves to the end of the task bar after restored from minimized state.

These issues make it very difficult to work in unity mode. Here are details about my configuration:

VMware Workstations Version: 7.0.1 build-227600

Host: Windows 7 64-bit (all updates applied)

Guest: Windows XP (all updates applied)

Steps on how to reproduce issue 1:

1. Launch unity mode for Windows XP guest.

2. Start Visual Studio 2003 from the unity start menu.

3. Minimize and maximize Visual Studio 2003. Eventually you should see multiple icons, each with a different aero peek.

When this happens, you can no longer maximize with one click (as there are stacked icons). Sometimes only one of the icons will bring up Visual Studio 2003 (while testing this now, the other icon brings up a portion of the guest desktop). If multiple copies of Visual Studio 2003 are launched, it is hard to know which one is which.

Steps on how to reproduce issue 2:

1. Launch unity mode for Windows XP guest.

2. Start Visual Studio 2003 from the unity start menu.

3. Minimize Visual Studio 2003.

4. Hover over the icon. You should only see the icon in Aero Peek (similar to how Aero Peek looks when using Microsoft Windows XP Mode).

Aero Peek works fine for other minimized applications, such as Windows Explorer.

Steps on how to reproduce issue 3:

1. Launch unity mode for Windows XP guest.

2. Start Visual Studio 2003 from the unity start menu.

3. Start Windows Explorer from the unity start menu.

4. Minimize Visual Studio 2003.

5. Maximize Visual Studio 2003. The icon will briefly disappear and then will show in a different location (to the right of the Windows Explorer icon).

I'm assuming these issues will happen with similar Microsoft products, such as SQL Server Management Studio, newer versions of Visual Studio, possibly Microsoft Office (I'm just guessing - I haven't tried the other programs).

These issues makes it very difficult to use Visual Studio 2003 in Unity Mode, which is the main application I need to use in the virtual machine. I would love to see these issue fixed.

Regards,

Tim

[timbyng]

Are these forums not monitored by VMware?

[timbyng]

I see that there are VMware employees responding in these forums. I have taken the time to document these issues. It's disappointing that my efforts to help improve the product have apparently been ignored.

[mdunn-vmware · Accepted solution]

Hi Tim, that behavior all boils down to the fact that when you minimize VS, it doesn't minimize like windows normally do. VS hides its main window, then shows the window again in the minimized state. When the host sees the window become hidden, it removes the taskbar button for that unity window; there's no way to know that the window will be re-shown again later. The Aero thumbnail doesn't work for the minimized window because the host has never seen that window in its regular state, so the host doesn't know what the window's contents are.

The good news is that you can work around the taskbar button behavior in Workstation 7.1 by pinning the VS window. That way, the taskbar button will always be there no matter how often the unity window is shown/hidden. This won't fix the thumbnail problem, though.

[timbyng]

Thanks for your reply. I really just wanted to make sure that these issues are known and reviewed by VMware staff to help improve the product.

Do you have any ideas why it shows 2 Aero peak icons instead of one? I'm guessing the issue is related. However, based on your explanation, if the icon is removed when VS is hidden and then added again in the minimized state, this wouldn't explain why it thinks two instances of VS are running.

I just checked Microsoft's Windows XP Mode to see if the same issues occur, and they do not. The icon does not get removed and re-added, and it does not think that there are two instances of the app running. Of course Aero Peak doesn't work, but I'd rather have it work that way than have the issues I'm experiencing with Unity Mode. I use Unity Mode over Windows XP Mode for other "improvements", so I haven't switched back yet. Maybe you could review how Microsoft handles VS?

The biggest issue I have is that I can't just click on the icon and have it switch back. I always have to select one of the two Aero Peak instances. When I'm coding, I often need to switch back and forth between different apps, and this really slows me down. I'd be happy to just disable Aero Peak (similar to what Google just did with Chrome) if it allowed me to workaround this issue. Any plans of adding an option to disable Aero Peak in VMware Workstation and Unity Mode?